China, U.S. and Global Warming 11/18

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
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SIMONE LOVERA, http://www.globalforestcoalition.org
Based in Paraguay, Lovera is co-founder of the Global Forest
Coalition. She said today: "The U.S. per capita carbon dioxide emissions
are so much higher than China's emissions. In 2005, the U.S. was nearly
23.5 while China is 5.5 [tons of CO2 per person per year]. It's
inappropriate for the U.S. to be demanding that China reduce emissions
unless you somehow argue that the U.S. has a right to pollute the rest
of the planet and China doesn't. China actually showed real leadership
in the voluntary commitments it made at the UN General Assembly meeting
in September. I understand Obama has to deal with the U.S. Senate, but
U.S. officials are actually obstructing progress at the international
climate negotiations. The Europeans have agreed to a 20 percent
reduction -- the Scottish [government] agreed to 40 percent. The U.S.
government is stopping these from being binding commitments. Meanwhile,
studies are finding that 300,000 people are dying because of climate
disruption; countries in the Pacific are on course to be under water."
Lovera will be at the Copenhagen summit on climate change from
December 5 to 19.
See: "Global Warming Causes 300,000 Deaths a Year, Says Kofi Annan
think tank: Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the
world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe"
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/29
Lovera is also reachable via Hallie Boas,
http://globaljusticeecology.org/newvoices.php.
Boas is coordinator of New Voices on Climate Change for the Global
Justice Ecology Project and can connect media to individuals and groups
working on global warming around the world.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167